In the wake of a few high-profile incidents, including the stunning news over the weekend that former AMA and GP star Andrew McFarlane was killed in a race back home in Australia, there is chatter on the message boards and Twitter from top riders about starting some kind of a safety committee or even a union. Following the trail online, it started with a conversation between Grant Langston, who crashed spectacularly at the Daytona Supercross, causing a red flag, and Chad Reed, who was very vocal about the jumps at both the Houston and St. Louis SX events, where his friend Ivan Tedesco collapsed a lung and teammate Ryan Villopoto suffered a broken leg over the same jump. There was also the tragic loss of rising minicycle star Jesse Masterpool two months ago at an amateur race in Texas.

Langston posted on Sunday afternoon that he and Chad Reed were going to spearhead the movement "in the hopes of making this great sport as safe as possible." The former AMA National and FIM world champ said they had a host of top riders on board, including James Stewart, who Tweeted his support of the fledgling plan, and the veteran Sean Hamblin, who posted many of his thoughts on the Vital MX message board.

Details of what exactly happened to McFarlane in the accident that cost him his life over the weekend have yet to fully emerge, but it should be noted that it was at an outdoor race in Australia, during practice, and not in a supercross event.

I got this off of racer x illustrated. I thought it might be an interesting read, does this possibly conflict with the MXPPA though????

I've actually been following the thread over at Vital since it started and am quite impressed.

Follow that thread here.....

someone one on one of the australian forums who saw it at the race said he cleared a triple and nose wheeled, went over the bars and said it loked like the bars might have punctured his helmet

The whole thing with Andrew McFarlane is horrible. It seems as though we are losing riders at a very rapid pace lately. If anything can be done to make this sport just a little bit more safe I am all for it. I love this sport and wont quit because of this, but I think that there needs to be a real examination of how we do things.

One can't help but step back and re-evaluate when you are two rounds from the end of the series, and there are only 4 factory guys left. Of course we don't even hear about the privateers who are injured, but shit, the top 5 are the only ones who can really ride these stupid tracks lateley. That sure doesn't make for good racing. You do see some pretty amazing stuff being done on a moderbike but still, when only the top 4 or 5 can do it, it's just dumb.

How was that for a giant run-on-sentence?

Supercross has really been a big let down in my opinion. It seemed so much better right about the time the 2 strokes were getting ready to leave and the first 4 strokes were coming in.

I've just spent hours reading though Aarons " Follow that thread here..... guess I'm a slow reader, but never-the-less I'm in on the riders Union. I really do want to see these top AMA pros ride and if they can't (for what ever) then that bothers me.

This is attempt #3, #1 and #2 were all about rants at writing this and so I'm upset. Rants #1 and #2 involved browser updates and system crashes and and and ARGH! so post #3 is well (from an angry man) the calmest of all. Not sure if I'm the only one that posts unscripted comments but trust my MX family accepts me for what I am.

Wound-tight-most-of-the-time

Aaron I'm in agreement with you. A lot of the SX tracks this year have ben very poor.

A Union could be a good thing. As long as they dont back illegal immigration,higher taxes,etc.

That ok Aaron as long as we can understand your point.

Good point Aaron I couldnt agree more..

I think a riders union would be great! Its pathetic when at hte end of the supercross series more people are hurt than not. Its lame that when the riders seem to make a complaint about some obstacles on the track it goes on deaf ears. That and it is REALLY SAD that we are losing riders on almost a monthly basis. I dont no what is, or if its a combination of things, but up to about 5 or 6 years ago you rarely heard of anyone losing their life while riding or racing. Something needs to change!

I think a riders union would be great. I don't place most of the blame on the tracks though. I think alot of the blame is the bikes. Put these guys on 2 stroke 250's and they wouldn't think about trying some of the sketchy stuff. The 450's have soo much power the riders think they can do anything and if one guy manages to pull it off, they think they have to.

Dude, Seattle 2010 was all bout pinning it.

The track sucked for its ruts. Tarps came off at last minute (read TV Camera Time) at 3PM and riders got-what-they-got. Seconds to figure it out.

If any were like me (warm up late) then that sucked big time.

Seattle was all about camera time. Enough said .. end of story.

Loved it, hated it

KW